I’m going to be taking a day off writing on Saturdays. To be present with my family… so today you get two for the price of one.
Buckle up folks.. this is going to be intense. I promise it will be worth it
I was reflecting on what I wrote in the previous post “Talking to Our Heavenly Father” and it caused me to think about how some people are concerned about people becoming too familiar with God…
Up until somewhat recently, I was one of them. I certainly questioned whether or not God wanted to be all that familiar with us.
When my wife came along she would say stuff like “It’s cause God likes me” when something pnreally good happened. Or Just “Jesus loves me.”
The way she said this made me deeply uncomfortable. I struggled with how familiar she was with Him. It felt like she was saying… that Jesus somehow liked her better than others because of how much He would (and does) bless her. I didn’t like that.
Over time it became apparent… that Abba, Father was in fact deeply familiar with my wife and was in fact blessing her in crazy abundant ways. She doesn’t think Jesus somehow likes her more by the way. So what’s going on here?
Jordan (sitting beside me) reminded me that one of the differences between us at the time was she asked God for more things that I did…. She knew who her Heavenly Father was and would seek Him with intensity… asking Him for His presence and gifts in her life. This certainly aligns with scripture
“…You do not have because you do not ask.”
James 4:2 HCSB
Or… You have not cause you ask not.
Watching Jesus interact with Jordan forced me to realize that God genuinely loves us and loves to shower us with gifts.
Watching Jesus with my kids raised the bar even more. People, even strangers, love my children and shower them with gifts and affection… and I tell you almost every time… it’s like I hear God say “you’re welcome.” Jordan and I pray for our kids every night and I pray for them (when I remember) during the day.
What does all of this have to do with the Lord’s Prayer you ask?
Well, we have to talk about something.
Why? Because now we are dealing with a potential paradox. What is that you ask?
His holiness.
The first line of the Lords Prayer1 is: Our Father in Heaven… the second line is Holy be your name.
Holy isn’t a word we use much in our culture… so much so, that even when you look up its definition, it uses more words that we still don’t use a whole lot.
Words like Sacred or consecrated. Again, words we don’t use a lot.
The best helpful synonym I find is the phrase “Set Apart.”God by his very nature is… set apart in some way.
The Bible suggests many things: He is set apart in… His goodness, His Beauty, His Love… and more.
God is so incredibly awesome. So powerful… so…Holy. The Bible calls Him the one who “dwells in unapproachable light. No one has seen or can see him.” 1 Timothy 6:16
This is one of several passages that describe a God so glorious… so full of light… that we… in our state…. Really can’t even look at him. So maybe He isn’t all that familiar after all? Some theologians are tempted to think so…He certainly can’t draw near to us in His full glory without causing a problem for us.
However, as far as I can tell, this is where Jesus comes in. This is where the cross comes in. This is where Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our wrongdoing is extremely important. This also is where the Holy Spirit comes in.
See a lot of people in the west think that Jesus death and resurrection was so that we could go to heaven someday… that’s how we tend to define eternal life in the west…
That isn’t how Jesus defines it. Not completely.
In one of his final prayers before death… Jesus explains
“This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent — Jesus Christ.”
John 17:3 HCSB
He literally defines eternal life in terms of us knowing God… in the context it’s pretty clear it’s not just an intellectual knowing. Jesus is in for a relationship. When I say I know my best friend… I don’t mean I know his shoe size… I’m saying I know him, because I have a relationship with him…. This is even more true of my wife. Turns out it is supposed to be even more true of God.
Quick exercise: let’s input Jesus definition of eternal life into one of the most famous passages of scripture: John 3:16… inputing Jesus definition into the text:
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but that they know…the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who He sent.”
John 3:16 ESV with a paraphrase of John 17:3
Does this change your reflections on John 3:16 at all?
It is right to say that God is all powerful, Holy, and Awesome. However, God made a choice. God wanted relationship… he wanted love and family. When He created us He gave us the choice: We could love Him… or not.
Now when you add in the reality of His holiness, this creates a conflict.
Whether we knew it or not… our sin, our wrongdoing, our imperfections make it impossible for us to stand in the presence of God without our own destruction.
The whole Bible is a story of God trying to get close to His people… in Genesis he walks with Adam and Eve. Even after sin, he draws as close as He can with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. In Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, etc he makes provisions so he can draw close consistently to His people Israel.
Though we reject Him time and time again, He keeps coming after us. In the Gospels it paints a picture of Gods fulfilled plan. Jesus.. paying for our wrongdoing… so that He can be nearer to us consistently. In fact, His Holy Spirit now dwells in those who have accepted Him in Jesus.
Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians says this about the Holy Spirit:
“He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Ephesians 1:14 HCSB
The Holy Spirit is only the down payment of what is to come. So what is to come you may ask…. The book of Revelation says it best:
“Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away. Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.”
Revelation 21:3-5 HCSB
God isn’t just going to take us to a better place. He promises that He is coming to us… in the fullness of who He is….
He will live with us…He will be so much more than our Dad… He isn’t Just a Dad…..But He is a Dad. At His heart He is our Abba, Father.
He wants to be way more familiar to us than we can possibly comprehend…
So what about His holiness?
Leviticus says it this way:
“…You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
Leviticus 19:2 NLT
We need to become Holy… like He is Holy… so that we may live in unity and love with Him.
So does this mean we need to wait til we are Holy to come near to him? NO
Because of what Jesus has done for us the book of Hebrews tells us:
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
Hebrews 4:16 NLT
So draw near to Him! Trusting in the finished work of Jesus. His blood has and is purifying us from all sin..
At the same time, let’s have the awe that comes from loving this Holy God too!
JustDad.Blog 
Leave a comment